No more head cases, please
Refs get tough on high shots
If players collect opponents around the head or neck, they will walk.
Whether you, Brad Thorn or Colin Cooper, or whoever else, thinks that’s wrong or shows the game’s gone soft, is immaterial. Super Rugby referees are under instruction to penalise and produce cards for high shots.
There’s no debate, no grey area, no such thing as being hard done by any more. What might’ve been acceptable once isn’t now, and rugby’s administrators would be negligent if they let players’ heads remain fair game.
After the funny four-team start to the Super Rugby season, the action really began in earnest in round two. There were some fine tries and a genuine upset in Pretoria, but the main talking point was the cards shown to Reds captain Scott Higginbotham and Lachlan Boshier of the Chiefs.
Thorn’s reaction to Higginbotham being shown red by referee Brendon Pickerill was fascinating. Admired on both sides of the Tasman for his deeds in rugby and rugby league, the Reds coach made comments post-match that are best described as antiquated.
‘‘Look it’s a physical game. Go to Marathon Stadium [for an NRL game in Newcastle] in the mid-90s and it was game on, but they are conscious of protecting players [now] and it tightens up every year. It’s a fine line,’’ Thorn said.
Many people will remember players such as Mark Carroll and Paul Harragon trying to take each other’s heads off up in Newcastle. Clearly Thorn does, as well as his own afternoons there as a Brisbane Bronco.
But times have changed. Higginbotham hit Rebels lock Matt Philip with a shoulder to the head. There were no arms involved. After the initial contact, Higginbotham then collared Philip and dragged him to the ground.
The minimum sanction for all that is yellow and the maximum red. Higginbotham was sent off and the Reds lost 45-19
Which leads us to Boshier and his lastditch attempt to stop Ryan Crotty diving in to score, during the Crusaders’ eventual 45-23 win in Christchurch.
Crotty went head first for the line, leaving Boshier with a very limited target to aim at. But he managed to get him around the head and neck and prevent the try.
However, referee Ben O’Keeffe eventually opted to award the Crusaders a penalty try and issue Boshier a yellow card.
‘‘I don’t know how else you could have stopped it [Crotty from trying to score]. I felt it was under the shoulder and sort of rode up. Both guys were pretty low, how do you stop it?’’ Chiefs coach Cooper wondered after the match.
You can sympathise with Boshier – to a degree – but he left O’Keeffe with no option. The head is sacrosanct.
That the Crusaders then went on to a comfortable victory will no doubt stick in the craw of a few Chiefs folk but they’re a good team, with plenty of time left to fire this season.
Elsewhere, the Highlanders eventually got past the Blues 41-34 on Friday. As ever, playing indoors didn’t hurt the spectacle and well done to the Highlanders for prevailing.
The Brumbies and Waratahs both came from behind to beat modest opposition. The Brumbies got past the Sunwolves 32-25 in Tokyo, while a Ned Hanigan try after the final hooter saw the Waratahs beat the Stormers 34-27.
In Johannesburg, the Lions were 47-27 winners over the Jaguares, meaning the one upset of the round came at Loftus Versfeld, where the Bulls humbled the Hurricanes 21-19.
It was a poor match, won by the right team, suggesting the Hurricanes aren’t as good as they’re cracked up to be.